Cycle
by faithinthecharm
Summary: An old threat returns, a curse is inacted and this time love can't save them as evil tries to steal their happiness. A 'The Rising' sequel. Please R&R Thanks Purple
1. We could

**Cycle**

**Prologue**

**We could...**

"Nurgh!" Chris turned over in bed, greatly annoyed at his girlfriend's late night/ early morning activity, seeing as there was no fun involved.

"Honey, it's 3am, remind me again why you're flying to Britain?"

"Because last time I let you orb me, we had to do it inside the airport so they didn't think I was an illegal immigrant, they destroyed my shoes and blew up the Leola root tea I bought for Moira's migranes. And they were really good shoes!"

"You know, we could avoid all of this the next time your visa runs out"

"How?"

"You could marry me."


	2. Jaded

A/N If you don't know who Alice or the Tantrix demons are you need to read 'The Rising'

**Chapter One **

**Secrets**

A day previously:

"Say what?"

"I'm going to ask her to marry me."

"Why?"

"Because, I love her and she loves me. We've been together for three years and every six months she has to go back to Britain to get a new work visa, so it just makes sense."

"You know the authorities don't look well on marriages of convenience little brother, and how the Elders look on marriages of the Charmed Ones."

Chris simply raised an eyebrow at this comment, but he didn't mind so much as he could hear the laughter in his older brothers' voice.

"Okay, so it's not a marriage of convenience, I know it's not and if I'm honest, I'm a little jealous, after what happened with Leah."

"Well, maybe, you should have chosen a slightly less ostentatious way of proving you had powers than orbing a girl who's afraid of heights to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge!"

Wyatt Haliwell grumbled quietly to himself, in a way so similar to the boy's mother, Piper, that it made Chris Haliwell smile just to hear it, especially as he knew it came from anger at admitting the wisdom of what his younger brother was saying, for as close as they were and whatever they had been through together, they were still brothers and so, still held on to the last vestiges of sibling rivalry which so often defines that type of relationship.

"So why did you decide to do this then?"

"I don't know I just did. I summoned Alice yesterday and she helped me to chose the ring. I got it from that new place in town."

"You let a dead person help you pick an engagement ring, yet you choose to leave it until now to tell me, your real, live, big brother!" Wyatt smiled then "Well congrats' Chris. Seriously. She's great, man."

"Thanks, it means a lot coming from the Overlord of all good magick even if he is a little jaded. Speaking of which did you call Eden?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because dating a witch is really complicated!"

"Tell that to Leah!" Wyatt turned and threw bar towel at his younger brother who ducked smoothly. They looked at each other for a long beat and then simultaneously burst out laughing.

Meanwhile back in the present:

Kara dropped the shoes she had been holding.

"Could you repeat that please, I think I just hallucinated?"

"Will you marry me?"

She stared at him, her jaw hanging open like the hinges were broken and his heart sank a little further towards his boots for every second that she stayed like that and didn't answer.

"Yes," her voice no more than a whisper. Louder now "Of course I will."

Chris grinned widely and his heart soared up from where it had been residing in his boots so fast it made him dizzy. He reached under his side of the bed to retrieve a square, black, velvet box, before coming to stand beside her.

He pulled her close and kissed her with all the urgency of that first kiss in the Tantrix demons cave, three years ago.

He drew back and opened the box. Kara stared at the ring. A small, white opal, she had never liked diamonds. It wasn't big or ostentatious it was just...

"Perfect" she said softly, "it's prefect."

"It's okay?" Chris drew back his face worried and she felt such a fierce rush of love for this man that it nearly overpowered her. "It's wonderful, but it would still been perfect even it was a Hula Hoop, as long as it came from you. This is just a bit better than a Hula Hoop though," she joked her voice shaking with emotion.

He smiled and kissed her again gently, before drawing the ring from the box and slipping onto her finger...

...And staring open mouthed as she disappeared.


	3. Spellbound

A/N I know the chapter title is naff but I really couldn't think of a better title for this one. We've got another 'The Rising reference to contend with and a quick apology for posting the wrong thing earlier.

**Chapter 3**

**Spellbound**

The San Francisco Tantrix clan shimmered into Haliwell Manor, appearing at the foot of the stairs, all with their hands aflame for the fight, but they found downstairs empty.

The Queen turned on her new second-in-command "You said they were here!"

"They are here My Lady!" the hapless demon stammered.

"Where?" her leader demanded sarcastically, casting about with her arms flung wide, a fireball still lit in her left palm.

"In the attic, My Lady?" her lieutenant suggested tentatively, stepping back to avoid a fireball as it swept past her face on her leaders palm.

"Why would they be in the attic?"

"Well, I assume they would be looking for..."

"For what?"

"The rest of us, My Lady, so they can make sure they've wiped us all out." said another demon, one of those who had spoken of plots in the cave, smoothly cutting off the others garbled, and dangerous, explanation.

Their leader let out a snort of exasperation and shimmered up to the attic. She appeared near the back wall, and without giving a great deal of thought to her aim, whipped off the fireball which seemed to her, to have sat, unused, on her left palm for far too long.

Paige jumped up from her place at the table, where she had been sat scrying with a map of the world, having long since given up on the one of San Francisco. Chris was blown back from his place at the Book Of Shadows.

"Kara!"

The Queen looked at him "That sir, is the name of my treacherous sister!" She threw another fireball.

Chris dived, and did what she had done to him. "No, you're not! We vanquished her three years ago!" He threw a memory at her.

_She felt his presence at her side. She leant to him and pulled him to her, locking her green eyes to his own. Not a trace of the Thrall. Without dropping her gaze she spoke quickly._

"_I don't think I can die without having done this." She leaned forward and kissed him quickly and urgently. As she pulled away he grabbed her and kissed her softly._

"_Me neither."_

The expression on the Queen's face changed. She was Kara again. "Chris summon Eve, she can stop this. It's a spell." With that Kara's consciousness vanished again, but not so deep this time, as the replacement mind could not summon up a new fireball.

In a rage and believing herself to be her demonic sister once more Kara called out a retreat to her clan and shimmered out just as they did.

The two demons who had contrived the plot to steal Kara from the Charmed Ones, spoke in low tones, in a cavern, away from their, now, unknowing victim.

"The spirit of the witch is strong and the loyalty to her sister that still remains in Eve's spirit prevents the plan from working properly. If Eve can be summoned by the Charmed One's the spell will fail."

"Then we must contrive a way to keep the Charmed Ones from rescuing her even if they can break the spell, at least until we can be certain we were correct."

Paige dragged herself off the floor and declared with false brightness "Found her...now what do we do?"

Piper looked at the floor and Chris could almost read his mothers thoughts "No Mom! We DO NOT vanquish her! We do what she said... while she was herself, we find a way to summon Eve from the Wasteland."

At the same time as the Haliwell's were having this conversation, the body that held the spirits of both sisters became more and more confused as its mind seemed to flit between the consciousnesses of the two.

Kara's was lost and terrified, while Eve's was torn. She could remember now, as the effects of the spell weakened, the fierce joy of being freed from the Wasteland, but, she grieved for her sisters' pain, for whatever had happened to them, however time, circumstances and magic had separated them they had always shared a loyalty too each other. Right now they also shared anger, at the demon tribe that surrounded them. Eve, at being bought back in this manner and for being left to rot in the Wasteland for so long, Kara because the spell she had tried to hurt those she loved and considered her family.

Either way a great many Tantrix demons died at the hands of their conflicted leader that day, as Eve/ Kara lashed out at those they blamed for their pain.

The Charmed One's chanted:

_Sister spirits, bound in blood,_

_One is evil, one is good,_

_Evil spirit hear our call,_

_Save your sister, ease the pain of us all,_

_From your people, from your Clan,_

_From this evil, nefarious plan._

There came a flash of fire and a loud scream and within the circle of candles a transparent, demonic, spirit floated

The Tantrix demons sprang into action as a loud scream echoed from the chamber of the cavern they had blocked with protective crystals.

"It has begun. The spirit of the witch as regained full control of the body."

"She has no active power, Elaina."

"Since when has anyone beloved of the Charmed One's needed an active power? Do not question me, just be ready."

The demonic spirit hovered and stared at Chris after hearing his plan "You do love her then. To give this plan house room you must."

"I do... You agree to the terms set out here?"

"My agreement binds the workings of the spell?"

"Yes"

"Then I do. I died once to save her, it seems only fair I am recalled to life to save her too!"

"Chris!" Piper called from behind him "This might not be the best idea, after all even demons we're related to have been known to lie on occasion."

But it was too late. The demon Eve stepped from the circle of candles and the spell passed over her like a wave of heat shimmering over desert and she became flesh. Flesh with full control of her spirit and her demonic powers.

Below all active defence left her sister, as Kara became fully herself again, but Eve did not keep to the terms, did not give Kara back to Chris. She left her in the cavern, in the Underworld, surrounded by demons.

"You lied!" Chris raged as Piper clutched his arm to prevent him throwing the vanquishing potion at their only hope of ever getting his fiancée back.

"No, I didn't, you mis-phrased, you promised me life if I returned Kara, to her family. You aren't officially family until you marry her. The Clan and I are her family." she smirked "Your mother was right, never trust a demon."

With this statement hanging in the air, Eve shimmered out, to tend to her witch sister, trapped with the Tantrix demon clan. Defenceless, in the Underworld.


	4. Sisters

**Chapter 4**

**Sisters**

"_And so the eternal battle goes on..."_

"_What eternal battle Kar'?"_

"_Chocolate or peanut M&M's?"_

_The woman laughed and walked over to her boyfriend and kissed him behind the ear. "Chocolate." he said, smiling, " and I think an action movie."_

"_Your mother will kill us if you show up with Rocky VII again. I think a superhero movie, 'coz' your lot kind of are."_

_The couple squabbled good naturedly for a while, chose their movie and opted for something from the jelly sweet family for snacks to save arguments, and left the video store. _

_The streets around this particular store were considered dangerous to most pedestrians, at least the human ones, which made the store cheap and the selection eclectic enough to draw people to it in spite of that, but this young couple were safe from all non-human threats_.

Chris was snapped out of the memory by the shutting of the club door behind him. He turned his gaze from the amber liquid and called desperately. "Kara!"

"Sorry Monkey Boy," her younger sister said gently, sympathy at the fore of her voice, for the anguish and hope in her older brothers' voice.

"Whatchadoin?" she prodded gently.

"I'm getting drunk, Mel. I'm getting absolutely hammered!"

"Why? It won't make it go away and you won't be able to help her if you can't see straight."

"Why? WHY? Because, it was my fault Mel. I bought the damn ring."

"You couldn't help that it was cursed. It was just a spell. It can be broken!" she made each point more emphatically, trying to get him to snap out of it.

"I tried and I let Eve out and she tricked me and..." his voice trailed off and his face changed. He flung the whiskey glass but he was so out of it he couldn't hurl it with any force and it shattered in a pool on the other side of the bar. Then, he slumped back onto the bar stool.

His sister came to stand behind him and watched him closely. "What am I going to do Mel? Wyatt's looking for her wherever he can go, Aunt Paige is talking with the Elders, Mom's scrying and we can't find her. It's been two days..."

He dropped his head into his hands.

Below the surface there was a small war going on. Eve Williamson stood over her sister, Kara.

So, little Charmed One. What are you going to do now? With no gallant rescuer riding over the horizon to save you?"

"As I recall, Eve, it was the other way around."

Eve snorted "Saving HIM! And letting me die while you were at it. We had a deal Kara!"

"Which was off as soon as one of your demons killed Alice."

"I didn't mean for that to happen, Maresh took that upon herself."

"You were supposed to have control over them Eve!"

"She was my friend too, K'."

"Eve, you were stolen when you were six years old, you don;t have human friends and do demons make friends with each other?"

"She was my friend too... before..."

Kara felt a rush of sympathy for her twin, for her lost childhood, but that quickly vanished as Eve stepped towards her, her mournful expression replaced by an angry.

"I guess you're right, a demon, with no friends, no family."

But rather than being afraid of the implication, of this change of attitude, Kara found it irritating. Kara stood up and with a swiftness that shocked her demonic sibling, and grabbed Eve by the throat.

"You think you're scary! The big, Queen demon. Mourning a 'friend', you haven't seen since you were six and you never really had in the first place, then letting your mood swing like a spoilt teenager! Pathetic! Yes, I'm just a witch, but I'm a telepathic witch. I could get into your head. I could make Barbus, the demon of fear, into a distant dream. I could be ten times the demon you are, then you ever will be or ever were."

She dropped her sister and stalked to the other side of the cave, clearly very angry.

"But I won't get into your head, not because I can't but because I don't want to get into your head. It seems pretty pathetic in your head. I don't want to be the better demon. I want to be a good witch, which I can be. I want to go back to the people I love and who love me me. My real family, and I'll do anything to get there."

"We won't let you go. You're part of the prophecy now!"


	5. Bonding

**Chapter 4**

**Bonding**

"You want to go home, to your family,huh? I'm your family Kara, your real family or did you forget?"

"You've been dead for three years Eve, and not the 'I'm dead, but I'll pop in occasionally' dead, dead. Dead, DEAD, dead!"

"You did it Kara, so you can't pretend..."

"... I can't pretend what Eve? That I don't hate myself for it! That I didn't grieve every day. That I didn't want to look in the mirror, because, you, the person I helped kill, stares back at me every day out of the back of my own eyes."

Eve stared at her open mouthed and dumbfounded "Yes, Eve I know I did it, and _I _know what it feels like to kill someone you care about and have a soul."

"And I wish I did!" Eve yelled "I wish I did." She said again much more softly.

"What?"

"I don't want to do this anymore. To be a demon. I've been to the Wasteland, Kara, and I have no desire to go back...I know you can't make me human, that no-one but the Elders can do that and I know they won't do that. I have nothing else to bargain with other than you, but you could use dad's spell to strip me of my demonic powers, which is close enough for me."

"I...Why would you not want to be a demon anymore?"

"I never wanted to be one in the first place and I'm in the unusual position of having a choice. Could the Charmed Ones help you dya think?"

"They might consider it, if you take me back."

Another voice cut in, "She won't take you back." The demon, Elaina, who's plan it had been to resurrect Eve and manipulate her by placing her spirit in Kara's body, in order to return order to her leaderless and scattered species, had heard their conversation and outraged at Eve's continuing betrayal. She kicked the last crystal of the cage back into place, trapping both sisters inside.

"I always told your mother that there was no place for half breeds in the Underworld. I had to have Eve kill her to get into the position, where I could make my point. Which was fun, of course!"

Eve rushed at the front of the cavern towards the taunting she demon and was hurled backwards into the opposite wall of the cave.

"Hey" Kara called "What is this?"

"Your mother polluted this Clan, fornicating with a witch."

"The breed was never pure there's never been such a thing as a male Tantrix demon."

"Aye, but the father's are supposed to die once their seed is sown. Not to continue to live and to raise the children in the ways of _good_." she nearly spat the word "he kept you and the two of you, you and your father,. Him killing us in his attempts to get her back, you polluting her mind when you met her" The she demon watched Kara's face as her expression changed "You didn't know that we knew did you?" You polluted her mind, like your mother polluted the bloodline, when you met her. She had these stupid ideas about democracy and 'softly, softly' and allowing demons to leave the Tribe and letting the others talk back to her. It was pathetic for Source's sake. Well no more!"

"What do yo want with me?"

The older Tantrix demon smirked at her question. She turned on her heel and strode away. Kara sighed and ran over to Eve.

"Evie? Evie are you OK?"

"Evie? It's been twenty years since anyone called me that."

"Why does she hate you... hate us so much Eve?"

Eve smiled wanly and dragged herself upright so she was sat with her back against the cold wet cave wall, wincing as the wall scraped, the wound that had been opened by her fall.

"Because I was too human. I loved and I missed you and our Dad, however demonic I became, I still kept some of my humanity, because of the two of you. I could kill when I had to but I hated it, especially within the Tribe, my second family. I tended not to issue orders, most of the younger demons preferred that , but some of the older, more powerful, OLD GOATS!" Eve leaned round her sister and yelled out of the glowing mouth of the cavern, obviously hoping to at least irritate their tormentor, "felt that it weakened the Tribe. Many of them left the Tribe, a lot fell victim to their own Power."

Kara made a questioning sound, not wanting to interrupt the longest speech she had heard her sister make since she had been kidnapped all those years before.

"They let themselves believe in the Thrall. They fell in love with their targets, like..."

"...Like Mom did" Kara finished gently.

"And with her no longer here, they blame me for that."

"But, you killed her!" Kara said hotly, the thought making her angry, then she saw the pain and uncertainty in her twins' face and was decidedly thrown "Right?"

"I did, but only to save my own life and I regret it every day. Maybe I _do_ know what it's like to kill someone you care about and have a soul."

"What?"

Eve shook her head and offered her sister her hand. Kara understood instantly, it was too painful for her sister to talk about but Eve was willing to show her.

Kara took Eve's hands and watched that terrible day, the day Eve had taken on the unwanted mantle of Tribal Queen, through her demonic sisters' eyes.


	6. Mommy Dearest

A/N Short and to the point. It might be a bit confusing, give me a yell if it's too confusing and I'll try to sort it out.

**Chapter 5**

**Mommy Dearest**

Kara flinched back from a fireball, she knew that she was inhabiting her sisters thoughts, a pat event, memories, but their power of the memory in Eve's mind was so strong, she felt the heat of the fireball as it sailed past her face.

She turned and looked at the person who had thrown the weapon and had she been in her own body she would have stepped back in horror. It was a face she hadn't seen in twenty years, so like her own and Eve's, and yet so different.

Her mother. Their mother.

Her mother, eyes blazing, vile words spewing from her familiar heart shaped mouth, their heart shaped mouth.

"I'll kill you!"

Her lips were pulled back, in an almost psychotic snarl.

The next fireball burned into her shoulder and as she was thrown back, the other demon, even though she couldn't bear to think of it, her mother leaped forward at her, at Eve, and pinned all her weight on her antagonist. Her mother wrapped her long taloned fingers round her neck, while Kara was trapped, like watching a snuff movie in 3D and surround sound, while what was happening to two of the closest biological members of her family and that one of them, namely her own mother was going to die at the end of it.

She could feel the taloned fingers tightening around her throat and her airway closing.

She felt Eve's word leave her lips, speak what would be her last words to their insane mother.

"I'm sorry, Ma." It was said so quietly it might have been though to be Eve's desperate, last attempt to get a lungful of air.

Then Kara felt a blast of mind numbing pain as the fireball that Eve had used to kill their mother burned the skin on her own arm and also the pain of the grief of bearing the responsibility of killing her own mother, whatever the reason.

In that moment, Eve, unable to cope with the pain of the memory any longer, pulled her hands away and the picture snapped out of Kara's mind.

The sisters stared at each other for a heartbeat before they collapsed into each others arms, sobbing.

A few moments later a Tantrix demon entered the cavern flanked by six others of her kind.

"Aww, how sweet...separate them."

Kara watched, helpless again, in her grief as the other demons surrounded her sister, subdued her and dragged her from the cavern, closing the magical cage behind them.


	7. Prophecy Girl

**Chapter 6**

**Prophecy Girl**

The Tantrix demons grabbed Eve by the arms and dragged her out of the cavern, kicking the crystal cage shut behind them and separating the newly bonded sisters.

"Kara! I promise you I'll be back!"

She elbowed the Tantrix demon on her left hand side in the face and took advantage of the confusion to shimmer out.

"No! You can't leave me" she yelled and them more quietly and with far less hope "No". She slumped against the damp wall of the cavern.

"What?" The older Tantrix demon demanded sarcastically "You had hope? About her? You thought you'd bonded? That she was good now? After four days that she would lose everything to save you? You're so pathetic, you're almost human!"

"Hey! Excuse me demonic chick but I am human!"

Then she turned her attention to the crowd of Tantrix demons gathered at the mouth of the cavern.

Kara tried to back away but, found that she was trying to scooch into solid rock.

They advanced, breaking the perimeter of the crystal, but the solid line of bodies blocked any hope of escape.

"What do you want?" she demanded again, ashamed at how shrill she sounded, that she couldn't keep the fear out of her voice.

"We have some medicine we want you to take." said the older demon smoothly.

"Medicine? No"

"Hold her!"

"Why?" asked a lower demon "She's no threat"

"I know" the elder demon smirked "It's just more fun this way."

The demons surged forward and pinned Kara to the cavern wall, someone grabbed her hair and ripped her head back, another forced her mouth open and held it there, while a third, poured a bottle of potion, black and acrid, down her throat making her choke. In her current helpless position she felt like she was drowning.

After, they left quickly, leaving her in a stunned heap on the floor, only the older demon stayed. When she was back in control of her voice Kara demanded of the demon "Why?"

"Because we need the prophecy to swing our way and right now dosing you with that potion and keeping you away from your darling Charmed son is the only way to stop you from breaking the cycle forever."

"The cycle..."

Piper leaped away from the shimmer in her living room.

"Demon!"

Eve stepped towards her.

"It's me!"

"And you're the evil one?"

"That would be me yes"

"Then I stand by my original assessment. DEMON!"

"I don't care about your assessment. I care about my sister! Now fetch your family, particularly your boy and saddle up, or whatever it is you good guys do and help me to start making things right, before the cycle starts to roll round again."

"The cycle... then that must mean..."

"...That you're pregnant, yes, congratulations, it's twins, by the way, girls, naturally, not that it'll matter to you, seeing as you won't be around to see them. You're a walking incubator, they're born, you die and we raise them evil."

"But Chris and I aren't evil. It's not innate."

"It wasn't innate in Eve, and she wasn't evil, not to begin with, but put a person through enough, brutalize them enough, and they become evil, then, add a little magic to that and they become demonic."

"So, you're going to pour that potion down my throat once a day for the next nine months?"

"No, we're going to pour that potion down your throat three times a day for the next seven months. Ish. Then we're going to kill you so I'd enjoy the potion if I were you. Your nest dose is in eight hours princess, get some sleep."

"And if I refuse to sleep?" She knew it was childish but she was totally out of ideas.

"Then you aren't going to get much sleep are you. You can be as obnoxious as you like, but we're not going to kill you for a while yet and there's no other way you're going to leave."

"My sister, my fiancé, the Charmed One's, they will come."

The she demon laughed and walked away. Kara glared at the retreating back until she was well gone, before collapsing into a corner of the cavern, all the defiance drained out of her, wrapping her arms around her knees, hugging her face into the blue denim of her jeans and sobbed her heart out.


	8. Cooperation

**Chapter 7**

**Cooperation **

"Wait, wait, wait!" Piper yelled "We're supposed to believe you! We raised you to help us get Kara back and you twisted what we said and swanned off to Queen it up over the Underworld. She's your sister."

Piper raised her hands "Hey! Look I'm sorry, I got a little lost that's all. I do want to help her, I just didn't... I didn't know her when you first raised me. I do now and I want to help." Eve eyeballed Piper warily "You didn't put your hands down!"

"That's because I don't believe you and the only reason I haven't done anything yet is because I can't decide weather to freeze you and torture you to find out were your sister is or just to blow you up."

Chris entered the room then having heard his mother talking to someone else.

His eyes were bright as he entered the room, but they hardened as soon as he saw who his Mom was talking to.

"Eve." His voice was flat and hard.

"How did you know it was me?"

"You're only identical on the outside. I love her. I can feel it when she's near me, my skin hums when she's around. You, the only feeling I get is my skin crawling. Now my Mom was nice enough not to kill you, I'm not feeling so nice. It's been a week since I saw my girl and that week has made me a little..."

"...Psychotic" Wyatt chipped as he wandered into the living room. He eyed Eve with interest "So, you're Kara's evil twin, huh?"

"That would be me. Except I'm really not so sure that I'm evil any more... but we'll deal with that particular issue later. Look, can you follow me if I shimmer?"

"Why should we follow you?"

"Are you any closer to finding her on your own?"

Chris growled, unwilling to admit that they needed the she demons aid.

"She misses you and she needs you and I need her, she knows me better than I do and I need her help to stay strong."

"So you're doing this because you need her?"

"No...Yes...I can't let them hurt her any more."

Chris lurched forward "They hurt her?"

Wyatt held him back "Chris we knew they probably would have hurt her."

Chris shook his elder brother off.

"It gets worse than that..."

"Worse, how the hell can it be worse than that" Chris demanded "she's been kidnapped by demons, your demons, we've been made idiots out of, we've used everything we've got and we haven't been able to find her and I'm... I'm afraid we'll never get her back. So how can it be worse."

"They're keeping her, they're going to poison her with evil and then they're going to kill her. That's how!"

Piper frowned and motioned to Wyatt to take Chris out of the room, which he managed to do, but it took a lot of persuasion and more than a little dragging."

"Why?"

"To keep the prophecy from coming to pass, or at least turning to evil."

"The prophecy? The Rising? She's..."

"...Pregnant...yes..."

"And stopping it coming to pass would involve killing my grandchild?"

Eve breathed in, to correct Piper, but decided to allow her sister that piece of news, while Piper had sent Chris away because she wanted Kara to be able to tell him herself. Piper would tell him if... perhaps she would tell him anyway. She didn't know what she would tell her youngest son if the woman he loved and wanted to marry and was, unbeknown to him was carrying his child, died, or turned evil. She didn't want to think about it.

She shut her eyes for a moment and then made up her mind. She opened her eyes, the eyes of the head of the Haliwell family and called out.

"Wyatt, Chris, call your aunts, your sister, your father, your uncles, your cousins, any family member that can help us. And Chris cap your temper you're going to need to be in control of your powers if this is going to work. Wyatt find the spell."

"What's going on?"

"First you're going to tell me what you want out of this?"

"I want out. I want to get this done and then for you to strip my powers. I don't want to be a demon any more. I want a life. Then what?"

"We're going to saddle up!"


	9. Barriers

**Chapter 8**

**Barriers**

Eve hit the attic floor, the impact knocking the wind out of her.

"What is it?"

Eve got up, breathing heavily, shoved the hair out of her face and turned to her addressee, Chris, who was bouncing on the balls of his sneakered feet.

"They blocked me! I do not believe it! The bitches have blocked me!"

"Which means?"

"It means they're using magic to prevent me shimmering into their lair."

"So how do we get there? Get to Kara?"

"I really don't know?"

Kara sat and waited and while she waited she focused on the the line of crystals forming the barrier across the front of her prison cavern.

She focused on the crystal at the far right of the line, the one on the edge. It shifted, not enough to break the barrier but to bend the field.

She was amazed but, on seeing this became quietly determined. She pushed her amazement aside and concentrated some more.

"This is hopeless. It's been thirty six hours!" Chris ranted.

"Actually" Eve said, her voice subdued "For her it's been ten days."

The others all turned and demanded in unison "What!"

"Time kinda works differently there. If I've been stuck here for a day and a half, then she's been there, alone, unprotected, for about ten days. If you've been looking for her up here for eight days, then she's been waiting for you to save her for about eight weeks.

Chris let out an anguished sound "She'll think..."

"... She doesn't think that you abandoned her, if that's what you're worried about. She knows you and she trusts that you wouldn't."

Piper butted in. "Wait, wait, wait, if time moves differently there, how come you look exactly the same age as Kara?"

"You're married to a guy who's real birth certificate says he's a hundred years older than you!"

"Hey!... Only seventy..."

"I'm a demon remember, or at least half a demon, I just don't age much. I suppose Kara and I might look the same age because we have ties. Kara is literally my blood, we share genes. Which is just another reason why I WILL NOT LEAVE HER DOWN THERE!"

Chris turned to his mother. "Mom, is the spell ready? I have to get to her, before she gives up!"

"She'll won't give up, I know she won't because I wouldn't" Eve said "If we can't rescue her, then she'll save herself!"

In an exhausting burst of concentration Kara shifted the far right crystal from the mouth of the cave, breaking the barrier.

She was free!

A minor issue was the legion of Tantrix demons who had sensed the change and were now blocking her way, but after a couple of months of this, Kara had just about enough.

"Sorry ladies, I just had an epiphany, and I discovered I don't want to do this any more."

A Tantrix lunged forward and grabbed Kara's arm, Kara shook her arm in an attempt to dislodge the demon. It did slightly more than that however, the demon flew across the cavern. Kara gaped for a second, amazed at her own strength, but she quashed the outward signs quickly.

"Okay, really wasn't expecting that!"

She threw her other arm and launched another astonished attacker across the cavern.

Elaina, the elder demon dashed behind her demons.

"What the hell?"

"Honestly, I have no idea! It appears I've picked up some new powers. Maybe you girls want to get out of my way until I learn how to use them, huh?"

Elaina piped up "I really don't think you understand, witch, you've sat around and ruminated. You've made us fight you every damn day to get that potion down your throat. You really think we'll let you go? I'd rather kill you now. And..." Elaina jerked her thumb over her shoulder to the jostling army of Tantrix demons forming behind their usurping leader.

Kara swallowed and attempted not to be so afraid that the demon would be able to smell it.

Kara made a slightly crazy attempt. She concentrated on a knot of Tantrix demons and raised her left hand. A beam of blue light out of her palm and the whole group fell, screaming, into dust. Kara flexed her fingers and looked wonderingly at her hand for a second before turning on the, now, rather lonely, Elaina.

"So that's why?"

Kara shut her eyes and flung out her arms. The columns of blue light and took out group after group of now terrified and floundering, Tantrix demons.

"Ya' know I hate to do this, what with you being almost family, admittedly the hated evil side, but nearly everyone has one of those right, but I am going to have to kill you when I've incinerated your entire army."

"Kara I..."

"This is what you wanted isn't it? Don't worry I know this power isn't mine, but it is the babies' isn't it? You wanted to harness their powers. Were you going to bother raising them or were you just going to bleed them or enchant them for their powers?"

"Actually, that wouldn't work..."

"All you need to know, whatever will or won't work, you and no other demon, warlock or sorcerer, will ever harm my children!"

"And all you need to know is that if you kill me, you'll never get out of here. Since the traitor in your sisters blood asserted itself, I've locked this place down tighter than a nuns underwear."

"See, I don't think I believe that, I've been hanging out with the Charmed One's these past few years and from what I've learned that if you kill the caster the spell dies too, and personally I don't trust nuns when the Mother Superior's back is turned. Shall we try it?"

Kara flexed her right hand and a now almost familiar beam of blue light hit Elaina in the chest, lifted her off her feet, and pinned her to a cavern wall. She screamed shrilly and turned to dust, burned up by a beam of pure white magic.

As she died there was a rushing sound and the light in the cavern seemed to change. Next there came a slapping sound and the noise of the air being knocked out of somebody's lungs.

Kara turned to the sound to see Chris scraping himself up off the floor of the cavern. Kara turned back and glared at the pile of dust that used to be Elaina.

"See told ya'" she turned again "Chris!" She jogged towards him and dropped to her knees next to him. He leaned up to her and pulled her close.

"Your safe, oh thank the Gods, your safe...I tried...I didn't know..."

"I never gave up on you. I trusted you not to give up on me and I'll never give up on you."

"You still want to marry me, even after..."

"Of course I do.. but, I... we... Chris we're going to be parents."

Yeah, eventually..."

"No...In about five months actually. It turns out that I was a couple of months pregnant when they took me, which I didn't know and what with the time shift down here and everything..."

"Kara, we're going to have a baby that's great!"

"Babies actually."

"Oh, my God... this is amazing!"

Chris laughed joyously and pulled Kara close again.

A new voice chimed in.

"Not to break the moment, but could someone help me up.. and then take me topside and get rid of my demonic powers...please!"

Wyatt pulled Eve up off the floor and the family looked around for a final time and then left, apocalyptic good versus evil battle to the death, averted by two tiny unborn children, floating safely in their mother's womb unaware of the power they had helped their mother wield and of the promises still to be kept.


	10. Stripped

**Chapter**

**Stripped**

"Eve are you sure you want to do this?"

Eve cast her eyes across the room, at her sister, so recently found, so worried. She looked at her, standing beside her husband, her hands laced across her pregnant belly and her face tight with worry. Eve felt a rush of love for her sister and smiled.

"Do I not want to do this, do I not want to give up being a soulless demon, who had to kill her own mother to survive, who kept pretending to love in order to kill and never got to actually feel it! Do I not want to do the spell that means I get to see you guys getting married and lets me meet my nieces, that lets me have a family again. K' I am absolutely sure! Plus I already gave the flesh for the potion. Did you bring Dad's spell?"

"You're using a spell of your fathers?" Wyatt asked, surprised.

"The spell he used to strip my demon half." Kara explained "We're going to say the spell first and then she's going to take the potion, it's just a fail safe really."

"A fail safe for her and a sentimental thing for me" Eve said gently "If I hear my sister say my fathers spell, then my family really has rescued me. Finally."

Kara raised an eyebrow at the faintly sarcastic comment and Eve flashed an enormous placating grin at her twin sister. Kara shook her head, and let out a laugh.

"Just get your ass in the circle, before I decide I can't put up with you for the rest of my life and I liked being an only child."

Eve grinned again and stepped into the circle of candles laid out on the floor of the attic of the Manor. She fidgeted quietly as the sisters lit the candles, and attempting to break the tension, she looked at the outfit she was standing in. It was a standard she demon type of outfit what there was of it was leather and it mostly looked like a crazy bondage swimsuit. Not for the first time, Eve found herself wondering, not for the first time why her soon-to-be-not kind wore these outfits so often, they were so tight and inflexible that they were nigh on useless for hand to hand combat.

"Hey girls, when this is done can we go shopping? I don't think this is the outfit for me to first go out into the world in, as a pretend human, plus I kinda don't have anything else."

Wyatt piped up again "I don't know, I don't think it looks too bad" Eve raised an eyebrow in a gesture identical to that of her sister. Wyatt had the good grace to back down. He raised his hands in a placating gesture. "OK, OK so I got it wrong..."

"Right," Piper broke in briskly, breaking up the flirting between her first born and the soon to be unempowered she demon, she could just about cope with one, good, half witch that used to have a demon half entering the family, one half demon, with no power that used to be a fully fledged, evil, half demon, who had tried to evil up her youngest son and then kidnapped her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, she could NOT handle.

Kara lowered her eyes to a piece of paper, yellowed with age and dust and covered with spidery handwriting.

"Evie, this is the spell he wrote for you, for us to use when we got you back, so I am honored to use it for what our father meant it for."

"Loved one lost,

Across space and time,

Returned to those who were always thine,

Made a demon, filled with hate,

For the prophecy to placate,

Back with loved ones, here with those who hold tight to your soul,

Say goodbye your powers, and become whole.

Eve smiled, her chin wobbling, "That was lovely K'. I just wish I could tell him to his face."

Paige spoke gently "Take the potion and maybe we'll make it so you can."

Eve uncorked the potion vial, squeezed her eyes shut like a child taking medicine and swigged the contents of the vial back in one swig, throwing her head back as if to ease it's sticky passage down her throat.

"Eugch!!" She exclaimed, her nose wrinkling in a look of complete disgust. "OK I just drank something with chunks of my own body in it and nothing is...ARRRRGGHH!!!"

She bend over as if she had been punched in the stomach, her face a mask of pain and collapsed on her knees to the floor, she bent over until she was on all fours, her hands flat on the floor. The candles flicked and went out as if they had all been snuffed out at one by one great hand. Eve retched, her back straining with the force of the convulsion and black cloud fled from her mouth and nose, rising up, until it drifted apart and dissipated into the air.

"Kara, did it...?"

Eve fell forward with such force, she busted her nose on the attic floorboards and passed out.


	11. soul survivor

A/N OK this is really short so I might add to it but I might not, I can't decide. Tell me what you think and if it needs more.

**Chapter 10**

**Soul Survivor**

"Evie!." Kara shrieked and ran through the sacred space to her sister, dropping to her knees at her twins' side and gathering her up in her arms. "Eve!...Chris, Wyatt...help her!"

Wyatt came to kneel beside her on the floor, transferred Eve into his own arms and held his hands over her limp body, letting the healing light pass over her.

Chris passed the two of them to support his wife, who was racked with sobs. He reached her and wrapped his arms around her, and she buried her face in his neck, while the brothers shared a worried, knowing look over her head.

She looked up at her husband "It's not working is it?" Chris opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off. "I'm a telepath Chris, I already know, it was cruel of me to ask."

"I'll keep trying. It might not be that she's dead."

"I know, she could still be a demon...but, please, please keep trying."

Then in Wyatt's arms, Eve's body jerked and she coughed.

"Eve... Oh my gods... We thought you were dead!" She threw her arms around her sister. Then she dropped her "Why the hell did you do that?"

"I think I did die, or a part of me did. The demon part of me...I don't know how to describe how I know this but it's gone...it's just gone." Her tone was not urgent, but happy, dreamy. "You guys gave me back my soul, my family, my life."

Wyatt helped her to her feet and led her from the attic. "Thanks. I think she needs a little space." She spoke of her sister with concern in her voice.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm good, a little sleepy, and my face hurts."

"Pain and exhaustion...you're definitely on side with the good guys now."

"Darn...I think I've changed my mind" she joked smilingly.

Kara watched her sister leave, and turned to her husband, twisting her engagement ring on her finger, with a wide smile on her face.

Chris watched her twisting the opal ring. "Now all of this is sorted, you think maybe we should get you a different ring."

"No! They cursed this ring because they knew that you would know me well enough to choose it. It's still perfect, it's still the one you chose and it helped me get my sister back. I don't want a different ring. The only thing I want right now I'm looking at." She kissed him passionately "Do you need me to tell you how much I missed you?"

He smiled, and scooped her up in his arms and strode out of the attic, as she giggled, the sound of their laughter trailing after them down the stairs and past the room where Eve lay sleeping, where Wyatt was watching over her.


	12. Potion sickness

**Chapter 11**

**Potion Sickness**

Chris turned over in his sleep, and hit empty mattress, he had known his fiancée had got up to go to the bathroom a while ago, and, he realized sleepily, she hadn't come back.

He rose, shook on a robe, as it was not considered seemly to wander around a home you shared with your parents and siblings without any underwear on and went in search of the woman he wanted to marry.

He wandered into the kitchen, and found her hunched over a cup of hot chocolate in the family kitchen, so distracted she didn't notice he was there. He watched the cup shake as she lifted it to her lips.

"Hey you" he said softly "I would have thought once you'd have got over that initial burst of energy , you would have slept for a week, I know I need to." He grinned and tried to lift the tension. She didn't respond. "Kara, honey, what is it?"

She looked at him, and he saw the fear in her eyes. "They made me drink a potion, to turn the babies, drain the good out of them...Chris, what if it worked? What if the time shift damaged them? What if...?"

"Hey now, no 'what if's' we'll go to the hospital get an ultrasound scan, when Aunt Pheobe's baby was evil, it blew the machine up." He grinned again.

"None of your cousins are evil...much!" She returned his smile, wanly.

She lapsed into silence again, and Chris came to sit beside her, she leaned against him "They're our children OURS, no child of ours would be evil right? Because we're not, right?"

The multiple rhetorical demands betrayed how unsure she was.

"Well..." Chris said, trying not to let his voice betray how scared he had become, thinking along these lines about the danger his unborn children had been in, could still be in and could bring to the world. "Well...you were OK and we got Eve back, and if you guys were supposed to fulfill the Risen prophesy so I bet your mother took the potion."

"Ah-ha, you, soon to be husband mine are a genius!"

She got up and bolted from the kitchen, leaving Chris staring after her open mouthed for a moment, trying to figure out what he'd said or done.

"Kara?" He called before jogging after her.

He caught up with her as he ran panting into the attic. "Man, you run quickly for a pregnant lady. What is it? What'd I say?"

"My mother, if she took it, but I was fine and Eve was only affected by her upbringing, then there has to be away to counteract the potion, especially because they only made me take it when I was stuck down there, at the early stages of my pregnancy. I just need to ask someone who was there!" She explained, her voice hurried and excited, as a ray of hope penetrated her worried, guilty, gloom.

"Ask who, your mother's dead and she can't be summoned, she was a demon, she doesn't have a soul to summon!"

"Yes, but my parent's were still together, they were until we were six, my father was around while she was pregnant. He would know, and he might be dead, but he does have a soul to summon."

"I'll wake the family..."


	13. Family Ties

A/N sorry I know it's been ages again, but life gets in the way sometimes ya know. Thanks to those who are still sticking with me.

Faith

x

**Chapter 12**

**Family ties**

The summoning of Kara and Eve's father proved to be quick and relatively painless. He was surprised and a little befuddled at being summoned after so long, and at such an odd hour, like a person being woken suddenly from a long deep sleep. A condition known in scientific circles as 'Monday Morning Syndrome'. He was also more than a little surprised to see both of his daughters, together, alive and in an attic with the Charmed Ones.

"It's been a very long time since I saw either of you, particularly together." He said softly, not quite able to keep the tone of reproach from his voice. Kara shuffled uncomfortably on the spot and Eve studied the attic floorboards with such ferocity, anyone watching would have thought she was angry with them.

"I know Dad I was just sort of in denial, and that meant that summoning spirits was one of the things that fell n the 'no' category. I'm really sorry." Kara offered apologetically.

"And I was just evil." Eve supplied her tone blunt.

"But you aren't evil now?" Her fathers' spirit inquired his tone suitably puzzled.

"Seems not."

"Right...well..good...and the Charmed Ones are here because...?"

Piper stepped forward even as Chris edged closer, bringing himself directly behind Kara.

"We're here because she's marrying my son, and carrying our grandchildren. I thought you still got the news on the other side?"

Kara noticed the tone becoming a little adversarial and decided to get to the point.

"And that's why we summoned you Dad, we need to know if Mom ever took a potion, that you hadn't given to her while she was pregnant with Eve and I?" She asked gently, seeing an expression of old pain pass over the old mans ghostly features at being asked to recollect those memories.

"I believe so...is this to do with..." He broke off uncomfortably, apparently unable to cope with the idea that the daughter he had fought to his death to protect, might have fallen victim to the demonic prophecy that had already caused her so much distress and danger, from so early in her life.

"Yes, it is, there was a slight...magical kidnap situation and they forced me to take a potion, four times a day, while I was down there."

Kara felt Chris tense up as she relayed this information to her fathers' spirit.

"The fact that you didn't take anything by choice helps. Free will is a dig factor in these things!"

Kara had to fight a shudder of frustration, she knew he was trying to help, but it irritated her that with something as important as her and Chris' and thus his own, family, he still managed to drag it out and sound deeply pompous. She remembered then that his tendency to pomposity had always grated on her in life.

"Yes, I understand that, and I could not possibly have fought any harder, but, what I'm asking is, is there any magical way of counteracting the potion they made me take, nullifying its affect on our daughters? An antidote perhaps?" Kara demanded as calmly and evenly as she could manage.

"That I know of?" her fathers' shade answered, suitably abashed "There is one, but it's not particularly safe" he warned.

"I'll do whatever it takes!" Kara answered stubbornly. At this declaration Chis laid a hand on her shoulder and spoke softly into her ear.

"A word, please?"

Kara nodded, and spoke to the room.

"Give us a sec?" She asked the assembled family, before she and Chris left the room, dropping a suitable distance away from the attic before speaking.

"You aren't going to talk me out of this Chris!" Kara said quickly, her tone low but sharp "It's for our daughters!" She laid a protective hand over her belly as she spoke.

"I didn't want to!" Chris said in a tone equal to hers "I just wanted to know how you felt, without everyone else around, before we went ahead with this and to tell you that, as you've already made the choice to take the risk, that I'm with you, through whatever happens."

Kara let out a low sound and pulled him close. "I love you!"

"And, I love you and them!"

Kara laughed, a vibrant sound.

"Our family, huh? Just out of interest though," she asked "If I hadn't have been willing to take the risk...?"

"I'd have cried and begged like a dog, but, if you hadn't have been willing to take the risk, you wouldn't be the woman I wanted to have a family with." He withdrew gently from her embrace. "Now, lets get these potion instructions from the spirit of my soon to be father in law."


End file.
